Laid off from Dreyer's.

What Dreyer's layoffs have meant for employees

If you work the lines at Dreyer's Bakersfield plant, the WARN notices of 2022 and 2025 set shutdowns with dates for coming back. Current and former workers told 23ABC in 2022 that the layoffs come every winter, and the company framed that year's pause around growth, saying it had been installing new production lines and adding jobs. A pause you can see coming still costs something. The weeks off land around the holidays, which a Kern County chamber leader said would mean more stress at home. In 2022 they also carried a one-time job, moving the plants onto software run by Froneri, Dreyer's parent, which expected the move to be finished by the end of that year, the Sun-Gazette reported.

The 2022 Bakersfield letter listed hundreds of machine, production and key operators, the people who run the lines, and the 2025 plan, as 23ABC reported it, left only the maintenance team at work. Some of the plant's workers were represented by the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 501, in 2022, and that year's notice said no employee had bumping rights, KGET reported. That meant seniority couldn't be used to take a less senior worker's job while the lines were down. If you get a shutdown notice and are counting on seniority to keep working, it's worth asking HR or the union whether it says the same.

That same chamber leader's first advice in 2022 was to apply for unemployment, and return dates matter once you do. A temporary layoff that ends within 30 days is one of the situations where you don't have to search for work, California's Employment Development Department says on its Returning to Work page. The agency decides that each week from what you report when you certify. Under its Unemployment Eligibility Requirements, benefits run from $40 to $450 a week if you qualify, and every claim starts with a one-week unpaid waiting period, which counts for more when a closure runs about a week, as the first one in 2025 was set to. If your notice lists return dates, it can help to have them in front of you each time you certify.

Bakersfield is the world's largest ice cream plant in 23ABC's telling, and the Tulare plant, which also makes Häagen-Dazs, was set to shut alongside it in 2022 even as plans filed with the city called for a bigger warehouse there, the Sun-Gazette also reported. Both came to Dreyer's from Nestlé, along with a plant in Laurel, Maryland, in the deal that made Nestlé its majority owner, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2003, and by 2019 most Dreyer's ice cream was made in Bakersfield and Laurel, according to Berkeleyside. If you're at one of the California plants, California's layoff notices and how unemployment works in California are the state's side of this. If you're in Laurel, Maryland's unemployment benefits are the place to start.

Teamsters Local 853 represented about 130 of the Union City plant's workers when the 2003 closing was announced, and its business manager told the Chronicle that members had expected a closing, just maybe further down the road, since Dreyer's had too many plants in the state. In 2019 the permanent cuts came with Nestlé's exit from store delivery, which its U.S. chief said would hit sales and supply chain staff, according to Supermarket News. If a notice ever gives a final date instead of return dates, it's worth asking whether other Dreyer's jobs are on offer. In our WARN tracker, Dreyer's notices sit under Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, a few under the misspelling Dryer's, and the 2019 depot notices under joint Nestlé names. It's worth searching each spelling.

A sourced history of Dreyer's layoffs

• September 2025, upgrade shutdowns at the Bakersfield plant

  The whole factory except the maintenance team was set to close from November 23 to December 1 and again from December 21 to January 4, with about 726 workers temporarily laid off, 23ABC reported, citing the company's WARN notice.

• November 2022, Froneri software shutdowns at Bakersfield and Tulare

  Dreyer's told Bakersfield's mayor that each of two shutdowns, November 23 to December 2 and December 24 to January 2, would idle 905 employees, BakersfieldNow reported. The Sun-Gazette put Tulare's count at 300 as the plants moved onto Froneri's software.

• August 2019, Nestlé and Dreyer's close a Denver depot

  Nestlé USA and Nestlé Dreyer's Ice Cream filed to close a Denver distribution site with 56 jobs, BizWest reported, as Nestlé pulled out of store delivery for ice cream and pizza, which Supermarket News said would cost about 4,000 jobs.

• July 2019, Oakland flagship parlor closes

  Dreyer's flagship ice cream parlor in Oakland's Rockridge, steps from its College Avenue headquarters, was set to close that Friday, and its staff learned of it that Monday from parent company Nestlé, an employee told Berkeleyside.

• October 2003, Union City plant closing

  Dreyer's said it would close its Union City plant by February, cutting 221 jobs and offering other work to about a third of the staff as production moved to Bakersfield, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

What to do if you're laid off from Dreyer's

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Dreyer's's biggest hubs: California, Maryland. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Dreyer's's hub states run: California, Maryland, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.